In The Heart of The Sea
by CelticQuailKnight
Summary: The occurrence of a thunderstorm ends up prompting Sailor Waddle Dee to recall a tragic event from his past. (Sad story is sad. But? Less-sad ending?)


Okay friends, I'm back! With another (most likely) one-shot! And it's depressing :) You're welcome!

* * *

Sailor Waddle Dee would never forget how he came to meet his master. It was just one of those things that you _couldn't_ forget. The kind that was etched into you forever. Not that Dee _wanted_ to forget it. He just wished sometimes that it didn't… hurt. That after all those years, some of that pain might fade away.

There were little reminders left over. Every day there was a thunderstorm, Dee was on edge. Luckily no one noticed. Every night there was a thunderstorm, Dee would have another nightmare. Another dream about the ocean coming up to swallow him. He was thankful that no one noticed those, either.

It wasn't exactly fitting for someone known as a sailor to be afraid of the ocean, but Dee wasn't really afraid. Of the ocean. Of storms, maybe...

All right, storms definitely, but not the ocean itself.

Orange Ocean was beautiful, and Dee had grown up on its beaches, playing in the cool water and soft sand. He could never truly dislike that. Even the waves that lapped against the shore were... comfortable. Home-y. Close in, it all felt very safe. But during those dark nights with the storms, the wind and the rain, the thunder and lightning, Dee couldn't think of the shore, the sands, or the gentle feeling of the tides.

During the storms that bothered nobody else, Dee's mind was swept out to sea, into the cold and the wet, and into a place he hoped he'd never see the likes of again…

That's what was happening now.

He had one small hand pressed against a window on the Halberd, his eyes dark with sadness as he watched the rains come down.

It'd been raining now for about an hour. Dee hadn't bothered to give it much thought; it wasn't rain that bothered him. He'd been watching it calmly until he'd picked up on the rumbles of thunder in the distance.

 _A small sailing vessel, manned by a crew of Waddle Dees. A sturdy craft, despite her size, with a good captain at her helm. Dee's father, donning his sailor hat, shooting Dee a reassuring glance. It was Dee's first trip. The winds were in their favor, the sun was high, and everything was as it should be._

Dee sighed. The Halberd was drifting almost lazily above the ocean, unaffected by the weather. She was impervious to anything that a natural storm could dish out. Alien ships or… or Kirby? (Dee repressed a shudder.) Not so much. But a few bolts of lightning? She practically wouldn't notice it. So said Captain Vul, and the rest of the crew, and of course, Lord Meta Knight himself. Dee _knew_ he was perfectly safe.

But still…

 _As the hours passed, the sky grew dark, the sun disappearing in between the dark heads of nimbus clouds. Rain began to fall, disturbing the surface of the ocean water. Dee's father gave him a reassuring pat on the head as the little craft took heed and turned back towards land._

But still. Dee stared out at the rain, past the drops that rolled down the glass. He watched as a stray bolt of lightning leapt out from one cloud to another, not as far off as he'd hoped. Thunder followed almost immediately. Dee paled.

 _The boat was being tossed and turned like a toy._

Dee shook his head.

 _Waves. Sheets of rain._

"S-stop…" He whispered to himself.

 _Lightning and thunder._

"Stop it!" Dee squeezed his eyes shut, trying to stamp out the memory.

 _The wind was screaming. Dee would have been, but he couldn't find his voice._

 _There was a wave._

 _Oh NOVA, the size of that wave…_

Dee opened his eyes at the sound of thunder. The Halberd was well into the storm. Lightning flashed by the window, and raindrops pounded the walls, but Dee couldn't move.

 _That wave. Illuminated green by a bolt of lightning tearing the sky behind it._

 _Dee couldn't scream._

 _Dee's father ran towards him across the deck, his sailor's hat blowing off into the dark. He almost reached him…_

"...No…!" Dee's voice was very small. He remembered the wave cresting, crashing down upon them, smothering them. He had been pushed underwater as the boat was reduced to splinters.

 _Dee was clinging desperately to bits of wreckage. The boat was gone. His father was gone._

 _Where was his father?_

 _Everything was wet and cold and dark and-_

 _Lightning! And then thunder._

 _Dee was choking on seawater, clawing frantically against the wooden plank that kept him above the surface. He looked around but he couldn't see his father, or the rest of the crew…_

 _Where was his father?_

Dee only noticed the tears running down his face after another flash of lightning shocked him out of his head. Quickly, he wiped them away, hoping desperately that no one aboard ship was anywhere near.

He turned back away from the window and took several deep breaths to compose himself. He was safe. He was fine.

Everything was fine. He was on the ship. He was in the Battleship Halberd and nothing could touch him there. The rain, the storm, that was _outside_ , and it wasn't coming in. He was with his friends, with his… _family_. And they kept him safe.

Everything was fine.

Besides, he thought to himself with a sniffle. The worst of the memory ended there. He hesitated, but then dared to look back outside.

The very worst of the storm was passing by. Or rather, he supposed, they were flying through it. Winds still whipped up the rain, but there was less thunder, less lightning. Dee closed his eyes again with a sigh, wiping again at another set of tears. Luckily, this time was considerably calmer.

When he looked up again, he thought for a moment that he saw a pair of dark wings blurring by. He shook his head. That memory was toying with him.

"...Dark wings".

 _Dark wings. Something with dark wings was moving towards him, flapping powerfully, plowing through the storm. Dee couldn't tell what it was._

 _Those wings… something that shone in the lightning. Two blazing balls of yellow._

 _Suddenly Dee was underwater. Another wave had broken over him, crushingly. He'd been dislodged from the splintered piece of wood, pushed down beneath the sea. With a desperate flurry of his short limbs, he pulled himself up through the freezing water and broke the surface._

 _Rain was beating into his face, and salt water burned in his eyes. The ocean seemed to transform into a spitting maelstrom and Dee couldn't keep himself afloat._

 _This time, when Dee saw another unavoidable wave, he didn't fight it._

Dee noticed he was fogging the window. He stepped back, curling his arms around himself.

 _Underneath, the ocean was so much more than its turbulent surface. Dee was under the storm, now. It was cold, and empty, but is was so still… Still and calm._

 _He was still being pushed by the waves, but being under them was… different._

 _Dee wasn't sure if he was holding his breath or not. It didn't matter._

 _His father was gone. He was alone now._

 _Just him and the ocean._

…

 _Until something broke through in a violent cascade of bubbles, and seemed to carry the energy of the storm with it._

 _Dee watched through eyes that were growing steadily unable to see. He was sinking away, and in the cold and the dark where there was no air to be found, he knew was falling asleep._

 _But what he did see, before his eyes fell closed, was that thing. The one with the long, dark wings, and the shining look of metal. The two glowing balls of light._

 _It was swimming._

 _The wings it had used to keep itself in the air were now being used to pull itself through the water, down towards him. Silver bubbles trailed off its body, and out from underneath the metal, racing back to the tempest above. Its eyes were like searchlights, casting long narrow beams into the heart of the sea._

 _Dee closed his eyes._

 _The thing he became aware of next was something grabbing him tightly, and the feeling of being pulled upwards. Some shred of awareness forced itself back into his brain, and when he felt himself being shoved out of the water and into the air, and his eyes pried themselves open. He coughed, and tried perilously to fill his lungs. He managed only to choke down more of the ocean._

 _The something's grip on him tightened, and with the next strong gust of wind and rain, Dee was lifted out of the water. Whoever it was had their arms around him from behind, so he couldn't see them, but he could feel the power behind each deliberate wingbeat. A lone bolt of lightning lit up the storm once again, and Dee realized in terror that they were not gaining height nearly fast enough. The crest of another wave caught them and threw them back into the water._

 _But whoever it was didn't let him go._

 _They were underwater for a very brief moment, and Dee found himself clutching back at the stranger's arms in fear. Once they came back up, Dee heard them start coughing heavily, and for a terrifying moment they were just bobbing in the water, at the mercy of the storm. But then Dee heard a voice._

" _Just hang on!"_

 _It was a deeper voice, with a sort of rasp that came along with swallowing sea water, definitely masculine, and the sound was almost drowned out by the storm._

 _But Dee heard it. It played in his mind over and over._

Just hang on. Just hang on.

 _They were moving. Upwards. The wings were carrying them._

 _Dee had shut his eyes. He didn't want to see anymore. His boat was lost, the crew was lost…_

 _His father was lost._

 _He was lost. Lost and terrified, and even out of the ocean, he felt he was still drowning._

Just hang on. Just hang on.

 _Dee was weak and cold, and the noise of the storm began to dissipate, droning out into nothingness._

Just hang on. Just hang on.

 _Dee couldn't feel if they were still moving. He couldn't feel anything._

"'Just hang on'..." Dee quoted to himself. The storm outside was beginning to calm, and he had begun to feel better. Not great, but better. It always got better, he thought, in the end. Just like when he met Meta Knight.

He remembered passing out after he'd been carried out of the sea and through the storm. He remembered that he woke up only once that night, when he and his companion had made an abrupt and haphazard landing onto the shore.

 _Jarred awake by what could have easily been more of a crash than a deliberate attempt to land, Dee opened one eye just a little. He was being lowered gently until he was laying down onto sand, that much he could tell, but it was very dark. He forced himself to looked over at the person who had saved him, just in time to watch him shudder and then collapse in exhaustion. The way his wings had splayed out weakly and his chest had heaved with every breath scared Dee, but he was barely conscious, himself. The light from the creature's eyes went out, and in the resulting darkness, Dee could only just make out how they slid closed. Then he'd turned his face upwards. There had been no clouds there. Only stars._

Dee sighed. In some strange, scary way, it had been… peaceful.

 _Dee woke the next morning, and at first he didn't know where he was. Most of him seemed to hurt, but as soon as he remembered what had happened, he jumped to his feet._

 _He was on a beach, high up above the tidemarks. It was a clear, bright day. The sun was warm. The air was clean and smelled of salt and something sweet._

 _Dee was alive. Somebody had saved him._

 _Somebody had saved_ him _, but no one else._

 _The other Dees were gone, and he remembered then that his father ranked among them._

 _Dee became frantic. He turned around, and around again. Surely some had survived? Surely his_ father _had survived? Where was he? Why wasn't he awake on this beach, too? Why didn't he wash up on shore? Wasn't that how things worked?_

 _Dee was shaking. He fell back into the sand and began to cry, tears streaming down his cheeks._

 _He was gone. Dee's father was gone. Dee could almost picture his face, but his eyes were swimming with tears, and it seemed to glaze over his mind as well._

 _He was really alone, now._

…

 _No._

 _It took a moment for him to realize it, but again, he wasn't alone. Through the twisting spiral of his emotions, Dee heard soft footsteps shifting the sand. He looked up and froze._

 _He couldn't say exactly what he was looking at. He'd lived in a tribe of other Waddle Dees for the entirety of his life, so while he'd_ seen _other races before, most Waddle Dees couldn't reproduce their languages, so he'd never had any direct interactions. But he knew was sure that whatever sort of being was standing before him now was not any that he was familiar with._

 _Though smaller than many of Popstar's other creatures, the thing was easily twice Dee's diminutive size. It was wrapped in some sort of cape or cloak, that was a dark, rich shade of purple. Its face appeared to be entirely concealed behind some strange metal mask, leaving only its eyes to be seen._

 _Eyes that looked serious or perhaps even angry and cold due to the angle of the visor. And glowing like twin harvest moons._

 _Dee was afraid._

 _Tears still trailing from his eyes, he wanted to back away, but found himself unable to move._

 _Then whoever it was did something unexpected. In the face of Dee's visibly upset state, its eyes, which Dee had begun to recognize, grew softer. One side of the cape dropped from around its form, and with a ripple, became flesh. It was then a long, membranous wing, complete with a hooked claw, which extended gently towards Dee's face._

 _He flinched back in alarm, and squeezed his eyes shut._

 _Very softly, something moved around his cheek. Dee opened his eyes to find the creature had wiped away his tears with a claw._

" _You're safe now."_

 _The voice was gentle, but vaguely familiar. Upon realizing that the stranger's cape and mask were in some places caked whiteish with salt, Dee understood._

 _It was the same man who'd rescued him. The creature who'd pulled him from the sea._

 _Dee knew that he could not speak the language his savior did, but he wanted with all his heart to say_ something. _A thank you, anything! As the man pulled back his wing and it returned to an inert, fabric state, Dee reached out one small hand._

" _You look very young."_

 _It was not really a question._

" _I found some fruit. You should eat something." Dee saw a small pile of fruit behind him. It was where the sweet scent had come from._

" _There is more in those trees." He said, turning his head towards where the beach changed into forest. "There are more Waddle Dees nearby. Go to them. They will be more help to you than I."_

 _Dee noticed that his rescuer seemed rather weary._

" _...I have to leave you now. ...I'm sorry."_

 _It was a rather abrupt way to go. The stranger did spare him a second glance, but in the end, he turned away, and with several beats of his wings, took off. Dee watched sadly as he gained altitude, circling up before orienting himself in one direction and flying away down the coast._

 _Dee sat still for a long time. He felt empty and hollow again. Eventually, his stomach's protests could not be ignored, and he approached the fruit. He was able to eat most of it, and afterwards he sat, looking out at the sea. He wasn't sure how he felt._

 _He stayed still for what seemed like an age, until he spotted something._

 _Something small and white, being carried by the water._

 _It rode up on the crests of waves until it was tumbled beneath them, where it was pushed along towards the shore. It was… familiar._

 _Dee was up and running towards it before he knew, and snatched it up out of the surf as soon as it came within reach. He knew then why it seemed so familiar to him; he'd seen it nearly every day of his life. It was his father's sailor hat. Soaked through, but not ruined. Dee clutched it so tightly it hurt. And then he ran from the ocean, as fast as his feet could carry him._

 _Later, once it dried, Dee had put the hat on. Little did he know then that he'd almost never take it off. Little did he know then that he would encounter the strange, masked person a second time. But when he did, the knight, as he came to find out he was, didn't recognize him. It had been years. Dee had grown, and the last time Meta Knight had seen him, Dee hadn't had the hat. But Dee recognized_ him _at once, and using his newfound talent for speech, expressed his desire to become a part of his crew._

The rain was dissipating. Dee smiled about as well as a Waddle Dee could smile. Dee still wasn't sure why exactly Meta Knight had said yes, but he was infinitely happy that he did. Afterall, if he hadn't-

"Sailor Dee?"

Dee jumped, spooked out of his thoughts, (for which he was actually a bit thankful), and wheeled around.

"Oh! Sir!"

"Forgive me," Lord Meta Knight said, his voice edged with a chuckle, "I didn't mean to startle you."

"Oh, it's fine, Sir." Dee waved a hand dismissively. As an afterthought, he should have gotten used to Meta Knight appearing out of the woodwork after all the time he'd known him. As an after-afterthought, Dee hoped that it didn't look like he'd been crying; Meta Knight was incredibly perceptive.

"...Are you alright?" Meta Knight asked suddenly.

Darn. So close.

"Yes!" Dee said, a little too quickly. The knight looked skeptical.

"...Are you sure?"

"Of course, Sir!" Dee chirped, attempting to sound as upbeat as possible. After a moment, Meta Knight seemed to buy it.

"Good. For a moment, you looked… a bit upset."

Dee knew that his eyes were probably still red and puffy.

"Nope! I feel fine…" And Dee did feel better. He smiled with his eyes. Then he noticed something. Meta Knight was… dripping.

"...Sir, you weren't out there in the storm, were you?"

"Yes."

Huh. Dee supposed he _had_ seen Meta Knight blazing past the window, after all. That was… a bit odd. But then again, he'd witnessed the knight do far stranger things…

"The weather has calmed down quite a bit now," Meta Knight continued. "I came to find you. Mace challenged me to another game of chess. I thought you might like to watch."

Although he didn't realize that Sailor Dee was the Waddle Dee that he had saved years ago, Meta Knight _had_ noticed that Dee never seemed to be quite himself whenever the sky grew too dark. He'd watched time and time again as Dee would retreat to be alone if a storm became particularly violent, and then come rushing back if it got worse and resolve himself to following the knight around like a lost puppy, as if he just couldn't take being by himself any longer. Meta Knight, being a very private person himself, never elected to pry. He just assumed Dee would divulge any information he lacked when he was ready. But still, over time, as the relations between he and his followers changed, Meta Knight gradually became more supportive, if in a subtle kind of way.

He'd only meant to check up on Dee after his little… excursion, but upon finding the sailor looking worse than he'd expected, Meta Knight was determined not to leave him be.

Dee's eyes lit up instantly.

"Oh yes! I'd love to, Sir!"

Beneath the mask, Meta Knight smiled.

"Excellent. I wouldn't want to keep him waiting…"

On cue, Dee scurried ahead. Meta Knight followed him gladly until they were walking side by side, and then with Dee trailing just slightly behind. Dee sort of knew what his master was doing, but it didn't bother him at all. In a strange, aloof, almost shy sort of way, Meta Knight was… fatherly. With Meta Knight around, Dee felt safe. With Meta Knight around, Dee felt... whole. And Dee hadn't known a relationship like that… for a really long time.

It was nice.

* * *

And there we go. A story that I've tried and failed to squeeze out my head for several years! Yay! I hope from a grammatical/making sense perspective, there aren't too many errors. It's late, and my mind is probably not working to full capacity XD

I hope you enjoyed it anyway. (Also please point out mistakes so I can fix them lol )

And yes. Sometimes I pretend that Meta Knight+Sailor Dee father-son fluff is a thing.

...And that Meta's a low-key adrenaline junkie that flies through thunderstorms when given the chance. Just pretend that Galaxia siphons any lightning bolts that would otherwise hit his armor.


End file.
